Sometimes it takes an outsider to see whats there
by Sam.L.Murray
Summary: A new case brings a new face, can she see something within the team they can't see for themselves? Chapter 2 up! chapter 3 coming soon
1. Enter Ariela

**hi, i hope you enjoy this first chapter, its been a while since i wrote anything, so i may bit a bit rustier than usual. **

**note: i really can't remember the name of tony's new girlfriend, so please forgive me. and anything you might recognise as belonging to something/someone else is not mine. **

* * *

Tony was already getting on Ziva's nerves this morning, he was just so infuriatingly happy! she was seriously beginning to consider throwing her stapler at him, but with Gibbs wary eye on them she knew better. 

Oh god, now he was whistling, couldn't he be more depressed? it was a freezing cold morning, it was raining and the first of february meant that a compulsary fire arms test would be just around the corner. And then Ziva snapped up, Gibbs was moving. she watched hoping he would leave, her wish was granted.

"Ok Tony, please, STOP DOING THAT!!!"

"Stop what Ziva?"

"That!"

"what?"

"Being happy for patrick's sake"

"Actually Ziva," Mcgee piped up, "it's for pete's sake."

"Whatever, i do not care, but why does he have to be so HAPPY!"

"Because _zee-vah _i think that tonights the night."

"The night for what? not watching any movies for a change?"

"Hey now, movies are a good source of intelligence..."

"So why are you so dumb Tony?" McGee managed to edge in.

"Uncalled for McGeek, and no Ziva, the night that i'm bringing her back to my place for a 'romantic meal'"

"Oh, your girlfriend, how nice for you." and with that, Ziva got up and moved in the direction of the elevator.

"Whats got her in a huff?" McGee just shrugged a reply, he was just as clueless.

* * *

The afternoon brought just as much tedious paperwork and annoying whistling. But with Gibbs back Ziva held her tongue. then the clip of high heeled shoes roused them all from the drudgery of their papery mountains. They all looked up to see Director Shepard waltz into the bullpen with a ... Teenager??? Right behind her. 

"I'm assigning you a new case Agent Gibbs."

"Oh, and what might that be?"

"You're taking over the Mystery Sniper case"

"I thought Jack's team had that covered?"

"The case has just been stepped up a level, and with your experience, i thought that this would be the perfect case to keep you on your toes."

"Stepped up a level?"

"20 marines were killed last night, single bullets, straight through the heart, our snipers first mass killing."

"I see, and do you care to explain the little girl advising Tony on what aftershave to wear tonight?" at this she quickly sprung with a slightly embarrassed and yet annoyed look spread across her face.

"She is no more a little girl than Ziva, Gibbs, she works for our British equivalent, and as 9 of the marines killed last night were British she was flown in immediately this morning to work with you on this case."

"How on earth? She can't be more than 17, she should be in school!"

"She is 17, but shes more tha..."

"Look Agent Gibbs, Sir," She was going to prove this overaged ape just what she could do if it was the last thing she did, "I was 14 when i first worked for my country, my dad volunteered me as a spy in one of his cases, i succeeded with flying colours, check my file, i was offered my position after that when i turned 16, how could i turn it turn it down? I love my job, and not to brag, but i'm brilliant at it too! Oh, and by the way, you can finish school at 16 in Britain so any more reasons why you can't accept me in this case?"

Gibbs gave her a look that told her that shed have to prove herself more than that, secretly, he was slightly impressed at her courage to take him on in that way, he hadn't seen anyone do that since Tony first joined his team, but then the Director took his arm and led him away slightly to have a quiet word.

"Look, our government, and their's requires us to have her with us on this, and she's right her file is very impressive, you'll find her over quallified to work with you."

"Thats all well and good Director, but a little teenage princess who needs her ass covered by us 24/7, and with just a years proper experience in the feild, is not going to help us."

"She can cover her own ass Special Agent, she is quallified for the use of any fire arm, and scarily enough that includes a bazuka," this earnt her a sceptical look from Gibbs, "and she is black belt in tae kwon do, so she has her ass covered, and as for her experience, she's required to work with us, end of story jethro." and with that she walked away.

Meanwhile the as of yet unintroduced girl watched the couple's conversation with a raised eyebrow, there was something between those two, something that could prove to be an interesting project to work on.

Gibbs meanwhile had just picked an agent, working at a desk, up by his arm, collected every little peice of paper, stationary, and anything else on the desk and gave it to him a little tottering pile, leaving the bemused, and confused agent to wander off and find a new desk.

"Right then intoductions, you call me 'Gibbs' or 'Boss' got it, he's Tim, he's Tony, and she's Ziva, that's your desk, and this," he reached into a drawer at his desk, pulled out a handgun and holster and tossed it to her, "is your gun, you have an american permit i trust?" She fumbled in her bag and drew out a big wadge of papers. she threw them on her new desk and rummaged threw them, drawing out various sheets and permits and handing them to Gibbs, "Ok, these seem fine, oh and a driving license? well that could be handy, so your name is Ariela? thats pretty unusual?"

"Is anyone in your family isreali Ariela?" Ziva quickly cut in,

"Um... well not that i know of, but my family have visited, can i ask why?"

"Ariela is a hebrew name, it means lioness of god," she smiled at the younger female with a sad, almost tearful look, and Ariela noticed Gibbs give her a worried glance.

"You can call me ella though, everyone else does."

"Ok ella, what are you sleeping arangements?" Gibbs cut back in.

"Oh, your director has arranged for me to stay with a miss sciuto?" at this Tony and McGee exchanged an amused and sceptical look.

"Abbys gonna love this!" McGee muttered at Tony.

"Oh yeh, this is could be interesting!"

* * *

**Ta-Da is it an ok first chapter? please forgive any mistakes over american government etc, i'm british and trying to make it work, (yes i am up to date with american episodes! i have a very special person who gets them to me overnight so i can watch every wednesday (mwahahaha) season 4 has been pretty good so far)**

**any constructive criticism is gladly welcomed! so go on hit the button, you know you want to ;) next chapter up soon and feed me some ideas if you want!**

**PS: can any one tell me why Ziva had a sad look? virtual cookies to those who can ;) (and no, that isn't the reason i chose the name, but you can try guessing why i did!)**


	2. Projects

**right, just for you wondering yes, the main pairing in the end will of course be tony and ziva!!! but this girls got a little bit more planned up her sleeve, (still thinking how though :P) and ding ding to those who got it right, its of course because her brother is called ari (meaning lion in hebrew) **

**disclaimer: still stands from chapter 1**

**

* * *

**The evening was drawing to a close, and everyone was hitting dead ends on the case due to severe lack of information, the crime scene had proved fruitless, the bodies were not giving ducky any information, and abby had IDed the slugs which wasn't proving very useful as they had no other information. Gibbs had dissapeared into mtac with the Director, McGee was allowed off early due to a doctors appointment so Ella was stuck with a whistling Tony and disgruntled Ziva. Making conversation with them had proved hard, Tony was in a world of his own and Ziva seemed reluctant to talk to her, so now she was trying to amuse herself by looking up random people on the internet, which wasn't really as fun as she had hoped. Then the elevator pinged and a very ordinary looking brunette stepped out looking slightly bewildered and overwhelmed.

"Hey, over here," Tony beckoned her across, "Found me ok then?" he smiled at her.

"Yeah, that lady at the desk was pretty helpful, um... hi" she gave a small wave to Ziva and Ella, Ziva chose to ignore it, making herself seem even more engrossed in her work, ella just gave back a small smile.

"Shall we go then," Tony questioned the newcomer, his eyes were on Ziva, both annoyed and confused at her reaction, before he lead the brunette back to the elevator. Zivas head lifted up and her eyes slowly followed their backs away, before she stepped up and briskly walked, almost running, away. Gibbs chose this moment to reappear in the Bull Pen.

"Whats all that about? and wheres Tony gone?" he'd hardly spoke to her since she arrived she was slightly taken aback.

"er.. well, Tony left with what i think's his girlfriend, and ziva ran off to somewhere when they left." Gibbs narrowed his eyes slightly and sighed,

"Can you go to the bathroom and tell her she can go home, and then come back her, i'll call abby up for you, ok?"

"um, sure i guess."

* * *

The bathroom happened to be very white, and was lightly fragranced with some flowery smell that Ella didn't like much, she turned the corner and found Ziva sttod over a basin looking into the mirror, puffy eyed and tear stained.

"Ziva... is everything ok?"

"Yes, Fine, is there a reason your here?" she snapped back briskley, annoyed at being caught crying, she was beating herself up inside, she never cried, and when she does, she gets caught by some little girl pretending to be worried about her.

"Gibbs sent me to tell you, that you can go home if you like, but, are you sure eveything is ok?"

"yes, perfectly, i wouldn't expect you to understand anyway." and with that she pushed her way past and marched out of the building scattering people to the side to let her through.

* * *

"So wheres this girl Gibbs? I'm only doing this to get on the Directors good side, now i'm wondering why, i'm not good with kids Gibbs"

"Abby, you'll be fine, i swear it, just don't get her addicted to that caff-pow too, ok?"

"Gibbs, you offend me, i'm not addicted to it..." this earnt her one of Gibbs' amused smirks,

"Whatever you say Abs." He then looked round and managed to see Ziva march straight past and into the elevator followed by a sheepish Ariela who made her way back to where Gibbs was standing.

"Whats got her in a huff?" Abby wondered out loud, "So then, you're Ariela, the famous wonderkid, follow me." Abby then just walked off leaving a bewildred 17 year old frozen to the spot, before she collected her thoughts and ran after after the white coated Goth.

* * *

The next day dawned just as crisp and cold as the previous and as gibbs walked into the Bull Pen he found a shivering McGee sat at his desk with his coat still on, Tony lazing around with a smug grin on his face and Ariela getting worked up at her computer because it wouldn't change the date to February second.

"Where's Ziva? She's late?"

"Don't know boss, she won't answer her cell either, i've tried about 10 times this morning." Tony replied quickly

"McGee you try her cell will you, she may not be in the mood to talk to Tony this morning." Tony looked rather affronted, but McGee instantly pulled out his cell and dialled her number."

"hey... where are you? Gibbs is getting annoyed?..." But then Gibbs snatched the phone from his hand mid-conversation and yelled into it.

"Look Ziva, get over it for now and get your sorry ass into work now... No Buts' Ziva, i said now... Look, i don't care about that, i want my full team here, got it!" Sure enough, half an hour later Ziva walked in, and sat at her desk, refusing to meet eyes with anyone.

"Right then everyone, Fire Arms test today."

"What about the case boss?"

"On hold for now, not that i'm happy about it. So get your butts down to the Firing Range _now_"

* * *

Both Ziva and Tony passed with flying colours, getting most hits on target, and Tony's praise over Ziva's technique making her smile for the first time in days caused a couple of raised eyebrows, McGee managed to hit all the targets, just not necessarily in the best place, and managed to scrap a pass. Gibbs naturally Got himself 100 much to everyone else's annoyance and Ariela passed just a few marks under Tony as a sniffle caused her to accidently shoot one target straight in the middle of the forehead. As there was still no advances to the case Gibbs called it a day after the exam and took everyone for a chinese, which Ziva managed to excuse her way out of. Ariela's intrigue in Ziva's mood deepened, and she was starting to wonder whether maybe she had another little project to work on, if her suspicions were correct that is. This could be a fun few weeks here in America.

* * *

** i hope that was ok, i'm gonna work on my ideas for the case to try and make that more interesting. i already know how i want the tiva thing to be sorted out... but i'm still working on how to arrive there, and how shes gonna get the other two pairings together. **

**please reveiw, i gladly receive constructive criticism, tell me how you think i could have made this better, or any ideas that might help my story line :)**


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